It's a fool who plays it cool by making his world a little colder.mostly silly, with a 20% chance of science

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Official VWXYNot? Olympics Pool and Trash Talk Thread

Everyone can play this game, not just Europeans and football fans!

Bragging rights will be assigned according to the number of medals per head of your country's population (otherwise you Americans will win waaaay too easily). 3 points for each gold medal, 2 for silver, 1 for bronze. Declare your nationality if possible, but if this will breach your anonymity then you can just trash talk the rest of us and then tell us your country's final score at the end. We'll obviously have more than one person supporting some of the countries, so please predict the number of gold, silver and bronze medals your team will win. (Again you don't have to declare the country, just let us know how closely you guessed. I'm assuming that we're all honest!). I'll use these predictions to award a winner in the almost inevitable case of a tie-break.

I am supporting Team GB first and foremost, but also Canada. So it's only fair to allow everyone else to choose a second country too. Preferably these will be countries to which you have some connection (birth/residence/origin/citizenship - it's complicated these days isn't it?!).

All population data will be taken from the CIA World Factbook, creepily enough - at least their methods should be consistent across the board. Find your country here.

*Team GB represents Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the geographical and political entity that is more commonly known as the United Kingdom. I don't know why they're not called Team UK - it's very confusing. Just look for the Union Flag. Remember, it's not called the Union Jack unless it's flying from a boat. No, wait, that's confusing too.

I also predict that the US will be the overall medal leader. Suck it, China!!

Um... India will be lucky to win one medal. In Athens they won A silver. Let's give them a silver and a bronze for a total of two medals. It's a population of 1.1 billion, but can we grade on a curve here?! If they get more than one medal, I feel like we should all golf clap.

Go Canucks Go!!! I predict 12 medals total..hmm how to break them down?? 4 Gold, and lets aim for 5 silver and 3 bronze. I am 100% Canadian but I will pay homage to my parents homeland and support India. I'll keep my fingers crossed that they get at least 1. Sorry Arduous I can only do wishful thinking for one country:)

What can I say ? I would support my two countries (Italy and Canada), if I only could bring myself to watch the Olympic games... I think the last ones to which I paid some attention were in 1988 (wait, I remember watching something in 1996 too... can't remember what though). The reasons why I lost interest are many, one of them being the same why I also lost interest in cycling (used lo love it as a kid) and I am also not nearly as crazy about calcio (football/soccer) as I used to be.

You enjoy this one, Cath -- I'll be waiting for you in the Fall, when NHL restarts.

No matter how I feel about the Chinese government, I have to say, it makes me tear up when I saw those Chinese drummers and how proud they were to be part of this all. I think for the Chinese people these games are so important. And watching the Opening Ceremonies, I realize how important it is to distinguish a people from its government. (Something I implore Europeans and Canadians to do daily about us!!)

Ok, that wasn't really trash talk. But the opening ceremonies get me weepy! I'm too busy loving all the countries to talk smack.

Okham, I see you have left your first country and moved on to another. Is the vegetarian food any better?

Well, you have to understand, this is a physics conference, and physicists are notorious for being cheapskates -- we are fed on site but, because this meeting is much bigger size than the previous one, we receive lunch boxes containing, among other things, a kitkat bar and a cheese sandwich (extremely low density bread with very low surface-to-volume ratio). How's that for "vegetarian" ?

On the other hand, at night we can go to restaurants and the fish is pretty good around here. Now, if I only could get rid of the flu and sleep at night... next Tuesday I'll be traveling to Cath's land.

BTW I have never heard an Italian say anyhoozle before...

Hehehe... I heard it on the radio a few years back and am now enamored with it -- much like "touchy feely", it cracks me up. But I know what you mean, most of my british colleagues look at me funny when I call them "old chap", or "squire" :-)

I am afraid I won't have time to go anywhere else -- we just have five days and I have a pretty intense workshop schedule. Plus, it's Mrs Okham's first time in London, so she's going to want to do conventional sightseeing, going through the most famous landmarks.

Okay, so I'm a loser and didn't get my predictions together before countries started winning medals...sigh. Anyway, thanks for offering to let me copy your homework...er, predictions, Ruchi! :-)

Cath, both of the other countries I support (M and T) entered teams, although one of them only has a handful of athletes. Surprisingly, one of those countries did win a medal!!! So I was wrong and am ecstatic to be so. :-)

Thanks for playing everyone! I'll try to set up some kind of predictions table to summarise everyone's picks when I have more time, like, in a few years or something.

Two golds and one bronze now for Team GB! w00t!

Still nothing for Canada. However, there is a Canadian swimmer by the name of Beavers. This pleases me greatly.

My parents told me yesterday that a British woman lost out on Archery bronze - to a French woman. Henry V would have been mortified. I also saw an awesome quote from the men's archery team that the course was in fantastic condition and the grass looks lovely. Erm, why does this matter? It's ARCHERY!

My cats are Canadian (from Haida Gwaii, aka Queen Charlotte Islands to be exact) so I am shielding them from the horrors of the medal table. Team Canada is doing very well at sucking. Ah well, like Okham said, just wait 2 years for the winter games...

I just watched Germany wrap up a gold medal in the team eventing with the last phase, show jumping. Gina Miles of the US is in strong contention for individual gold...oh, wait, Romeike of Germany wins gold, Miles silver, and Kristina Cook of GB bronze for individual eventing! Cook was a late replacement on the GB team, and she and her horse Miner's Frolic were just brilliant.

AUSSIE OFFICIAL CRACKS WISE ABOUT THE BRITISH AND SOAP There was also another bit of bother Monday, between the Aussies and the British, although it was in more of a music-hall vein. In a report from Beijing in the British daily The Guardian (the same paper that broke the Spain ad story on monday), the paper’s Matt Scott noted the “sporting spat between Britain and Australia plumbed new and comical depths yesterday as the most senior Australian Olympic official accused British athletes of lacking personal hygiene.”

The remark in question came from Oz Olympic Committee chief and IOC member John Coates, who reacted to Rebecca Adlington’s gold in the 400-meter freestyle swim for Britain with the observation, “It’s not bad for a country that has no swimming pools and very little soap.”

Cath, you didn't tell me that Britain is bereft of soap! What am I going to do? Do I have to import my own soap with me in my already too heavy luggage?!!!

Actually, I can assess first hand that there is soap in England, and the tea is excellent -- oh, wait, my wife is telling me that it was coffee that I just drank, not tea. Sorry...Electric sockets, on the other hand, are still incompatible with plugs from just about any other country... so I had to buy adapters.

Btw, Cath, what's the deal with wanting to see my passport (twice no less, once before I boarded the train in Bruxelles, the second time after arriving in St. Pancras) ? I thought that the EU worked like the US or Canada, i.e., with a single point of entry, and that thereafter I could travel from anywhere to anywhere without having to show anything. Isn't the UK in the EU ?I had this mean-looking lady ask me "What are you going to the UK for ? How many days ? Where are you traveling afterwards ?"... Maybe she was trying out for a job with INS...Weather sucks, just like it did in Holland. At least it's not hot though.

I think the UK, as an island, retained some kind of rights to check all passports at the border. If you showed an Italian passport though they shouldn't have questioned you!

I've had my passport checked at the border when travelling from France into Italy, and France into Spain, and when entering and leaving Switzerland (which obviously isn't in the EU). However I didn't get checked on the train from Spain to Portugal, or at other borders between France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. I think sometimes they just get bored.

I have to say, that there is a LOT of straining on TV of commentators trying to decide who is leading overall: China or the US.

The US leads in the overall medal count, but the Chinese leads in the GOLD medal count. I listened to 15 minutes worth of, "The US is leading." "No, it's China." "No it's the US." "No, only gold matters."

I think your way of assigning points makes the most sense. And by that calculation, UNFORTUNATELY China still leads. I am very hopeful though that that will change soon.

Bah. I'm depressed now that Federer lost. What is going ON with him? And of course the commentators here are all excited because it means the US might medal in men's tennis which is suddenly important now that Venus and Serena are out.

2012 will be exciting because the tennis will be played at Wimbledon!! I wonder if all the stupid Wimbledon rules (wearing all white, women being referred to as Miss Suchandsuch) will be in effect.

Yes, Canada has been pretty dismal. You know they've never won a gold on their home turf? Both at Calgary and Montreal they never managed to win a gold medal. So I guess people are very antsy about Vancouver.

Actually I think Americans are getting anxious because this may be the first time in a while that the Americans don't end up as the medal leader.

Also, it is very hard to smack talk as an American because no matter what you say you are going to come across like a bully!!

Also, I am still excited about India's gold. Even though it was in a stupid non-sport.

Yeah, I read it on the newspaper... pretty incredible that a country with barely 50 million people and one of the lowest birthrates in the world manages to continue to perform at a decent level at the Olympics.

OK, this is crazy -- a north korean shooter has been disqualified for DOPING ? A shooter ? What did he take, valium ? OK, I have discussed enough Olympic games for the next month or so...

Just so you know, based on Per Capita, Canada is kicking everyone's arse! Woot woot. using Cath's point system, we are at 8.4 points, followed by the USA at 6.1 the brits bring up the bottom with at 1.411 (china is 1.42). Once I get back from the gym and costco, I'll waste sometime figuring out how to put an excel sheet on my blog :) Go Canucks Go!!! sorry aussies, you're not listed on the CBCs home page.

shit you're right, stupid excel had in it 1.4E6 vs. 8.4E7 (I didn't look at the E values. Gosh that was bad scientist moment, I'll blame it on my rush to get to the gym:). That said we canucks are still ahead of China and the USA. Lets see what happens after today, we're up for a couple more!

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